Special Operations

Muscatine Fire Department provides an array of emergency response to all types of emergencies, besides our standard EMS and fire related activities we also have a special operations section. Muscatine HAZMAT is designated as a regional HAZMAT team. They currently fall under region 16 and provide services to Muscatine, Louisa, Henry, Washington, and Keokuk counties. Those counties pay for Muscatine services through a 28E agreement.

History of Special Operations

On December 17, 1997 the Muscatine Fire Department revealed its Hazardous Incident Response Team or HIRT for short. This special response team was a multi-disciplined team that has prepared for serving our citizens in the areas of hazardous materials, confined space rescue, high angle rope rescue, trench rescue, and clandestine lab clean up.
As things changed over time and the Fire Department took on more responsibility especially after taking on ambulance service operations, it was noticed that more personnel needed to be trained and ready to take on these special responsibilities. The HIRT team was eventually dissolved and every member on the department was trained to take on these responsibilities. In 2005 there was a significant upgrade in the Fire Departments ability and at that time the Muscatine Fire Department took delivery of a brand new tractor trailer HAZMAT truck through a federal grant.